The rise and fall of Britain's most important industry
No
one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of
the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday - and what happened
to mining communities after the last pits closed.
Coal was
central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It
carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked
everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher's shutdowns. Defeat
foretold the death of their industry. Tens of thousands were cast onto
the labour market with a minimum amount of advice and support.
Yet
British politics all of a sudden revolves around the coalfield
constituencies that lent their votes to Boris Johnson's Conservatives in
2019. Even in the Welsh Valleys, where the 'red wall' still stands,
support for the Labour Party has halved in a generation.
Huw
Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these
momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through
them.
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